Museums preserve Stonefort history

Friday

Jul 31, 2009 at 12:01 AMJul 31, 2009 at 9:26 AM

Stonefort is a small town that owes its existence to the railroad industry and the coal industry that required it. A Stonefort native, Linda Blackman, is working to preserve that history with the Saturday opening of Stonefort Depot Museums. There are three museums within the old depot building dedicated to the village, the railroad industry and her father's hardware store.

Brian DeNeal

Stonefort is a small town that owes its existence to the railroad industry and the coal industry that required it.

A Stonefort native, Linda Blackman, is working to preserve that history with the Saturday opening of Stonefort Depot Museums. The location is itself a relic. The oldest part of the depot dates to the 1890s. Graffiti from that period is preserved, etched on the oldest wall, which was made an interior wall during the building's renovation in 1915.

The depot served the railroad industry for decades until Blackman's father purchased it from the New York Central railroad company in 1965 and moved his hardware store into it.

Stonefort Depot Museums is a collection of three museums: The Railroad Depot Museum, the Stonefort Community Museum and the Hardware Store Museum.

"I take a holistic approach to history," Blackman said. "It's the community, the railroad and Dad had a hardware store and they are all interrelated."

Blackman has worked closely with Hovie Stunson, Saline County's prime railroad historian. The two have collected photos and artifacts to recreate the feel of the railroad depot.

For Stunson, the project is a dream come true. He lectures on the local railroad industry at area festivals and has a large collection of rail tools. Now he finally has a chance to share his hobby that he admits borders on obsession.

"A year ago in the library I gave her a big hug because she said she had an interest in the building," Stunson said.

There are volumes of three-ring binders Stunson has assembled so that visitors can use them in their own railroad research. Photos on the wall show the trains and depot in their heyday between 1890 and 1920. The depot's freight room is intact with stacks of furniture and crates ready to be shipped on the next train.

But the museum is more than trains. Blackman acquired old ledgers of ordinances of Stonefort and Bolton, the town that became Stonefort. She has documents and photographs of some of the old businesses like the Tupper House, the Ledin Hotel, Ridgeway Hotel and Oliver Lewis Drug Store.

The third section of the museum complex was virtually ready-made. Blackman's father, Virgil, operated the Blackman Hardware Store following World War II for 50 years. He moved into the depot in 1965. The museum is much the same as Blackman left it when it closed with such unique items as chimney flues, chamber pots, a Zenith television from the 1980s era, square nails in the nail bin, hand tools and various odds and ends that would be challenging to find in

The museums hours of operation are 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunday.

The museum will be at the center of the Stonefort Reunion with the reunion recognizing Train Day 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 22, the final day of the reunion.

Blackman solicits items relating to the railroad and Stonefort history from documents to photos to railroad tools. Anyone wanting to help her preserve and share the history can call her at (618) 252-5112.